WNBA Salaries: Silver promises increase, but players seek revenue sharing

Salary Increase for WNBA Players in the New Collective Bargaining Agreement

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver announced that WNBA players will receive a “significant increase” in their salaries as part of the new collective bargaining agreement. Silver suggested that salary growth should be measured in “absolute figures” rather than a percentage of revenue.

I think the percentage is not the right way to look at it because there is much more revenue in the NBA. I think they should look at the absolute figures in terms of what they are earning. They are going to get a big raise in this collective bargaining cycle and they deserve it.

Adam Silver

The WNBA Players Association (WNBPA) opted not to renew the current collective bargaining agreement a year ago and has been negotiating a new one since then. The current agreement is scheduled to expire in less than two weeks, on October 31. The WNBPA shared a clip of Silver’s comments on an Instagram story, repeating the phrase “I think the percentage is not the right way to look at it” and the caption “Don’t they want to share?”. One of the main obstacles in the negotiations, according to the players, is the difference of opinion on how to determine salaries at a time of great growth for the league. The players are pushing for a system where the percentage of revenue allocated to salaries increases with business growth, similar to the NBA, where the salary cap is determined by basketball-related income (BRI), with the players receiving approximately half of that amount, as established in their collective bargaining agreement. The league’s proposals, on the other hand, have presented a salary cap that increases at a fixed rate over time, as in the current agreement, where the cap increases by 3% annually. Satou Sabally of the Phoenix Mercury commented during the WNBA Finals that a recent proposal from the league makes the players feel that “we are not part of the league’s growth.”

If we were to continue with this collective bargaining agreement, we would decrease, in percentage terms, our [compensation].

Satou SaballyThe league’s salary cap was $1,507,100 in 2025, with a maximum of $249,244 and a minimum of $66,079. The WNBA has experienced record growth in the last two years, with an increase in attendance, viewership, merchandise sales, investment, and franchise valuations, and a new media deal worth $2.2 billion on the way. When asked during the Finals about the points of disagreement in the collective bargaining agreement negotiations, WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert spoke about the importance of “balancing” an increase in player salaries with the “long-term viability of the league”.

That’s what we’re debating to determine where the right balance is. I think we all agree that we’re trying to return every possible dollar to the players, but we also want to incentivize the owners’ investment. We want the owners to have a viable business. Obviously, we are considering expansion to 18 teams by the end of the decade. So it’s important that those incoming owners have the opportunity for a viable economic model for the future.

Cathy Engelbert

If the two parties do not reach an agreement before Halloween, they could agree to an extension that allows them to continue negotiating, as they did with the last collective bargaining agreement that was finally signed in January 2020. A new collective bargaining agreement must be completed before a two-team expansion draft for the Toronto Tempo and Portland Fire takes place, and it must also precede a free agency period where most veteran league players are unrestricted free agents.